Sunday, June 10, 2012

What Went Wrong: Lousy starting pitching was the biggest problem... again.

The umpires didn't help much, either.

With Carlos Gonzalez representing the tying run in the 9th, the soon to be all-star hit a line drive (not just any line drive, a CarGo line drive) back to Angels' closer Scott Downs that the lefty miraculously snagged cleanly out of the air, and then lost on the exchange from glove to hand as he attempted to double off Marco Scutaro. Only the four-man umpiring crew led by NBA official Joey Crawford and three direct descendants of the Three Stooges ruled that Downs didn't catch the ball.

(OK, the crew was actually Greg Gibson, Gerry Davis, Phil Cuzzi and Manny Gonzalez, but you could have fooled me.)

Gonzalez, who had the best view of Downs making the catch, never took off for first. Marco Scutaro apparently had the second best view, because he retreated to first base. That led to one of the most awkward looking and slowest developing 1-6-3 double plays you'll ever see. And it also led to an animated Jim Tracy outburst that earned him his first ejection of the season.

It's always rough when a blown call takes an opportunity away from your offense, especially when it's at that point in the game. But again, starting pitching was the real problem today. The offense hit well enough that it should have never come down to the incompetent men in blue. Unfortunately, things aren't about to get better in that regard. By the same token, things aren't about to get better with these umpires either until MLB gets serious about expanded replay.

Fails galore.

PS: This in the fourth weekend the Rockies have been swept in the last six. They're 3-15 over that stretch.

I see those first five names and I'm ready to cry Uncle. Christian Friedrich won't be, however, and this actually qualifies as not only a big test for him, but an equally big opportunity to gain some experience against a high caliber offense. It'll be interesting to see if he responds as well as I thought Alex White did on Friday night.